


Everything you ever wanted

by jenny_wren



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 01:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/999489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenny_wren/pseuds/jenny_wren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len regains custody of Joanna. Children can't live on Starships.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything you ever wanted

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt from somewhere I can't remember and can't find (bit useless I know)

Len had thought he was past the point where his ex-wife had any control over his life. Then Jocelyn went and had twins. Objectively this should not have affected him, but twin babies are about three times as much work as a single baby, which meant Jocelyn had almost no time to spend with their daughter. Which left Joanna acting out with an ability far beyond her seven years. (After listening to Jocelyn’s strained, tearful explanation, Len couldn’t help thinking that Joanna took after her Uncle Jim despite having only met the man once.)

Jocelyn sent him formal documents relinquishing all custody of one Joanna McCoy with indecent speed. Len stared at them caught between joy and heartbreak for his daughter. Jim just shrugged his shoulders and said,

“Step-families, man.”

“Jocelyn is Jo’s _mother_.”

“No, she’s whatshisname’s wife. Jo’s nothing but a memory she can’t lock away in the attic.”

Len’s attention jerked away from the legal jargon and he stared at his best friend, his Jim. Jim was slumped down across the sofa, holding a glass of bourbon up to the light and watching it glitter.

“Aw kid, come here.” He reached out, wanting nothing more than to soothe and kiss and love the sadness out of Jim.

“Nah,” Jim downed the whiskey, “got stuff to do. I’ll see you around.” He brushed past Len as if he wasn’t there.

That was when it really struck Len that in having one dream come true, he was losing any chance at newer, but just as precious, dreams.

He grabbed the bottle and drank until he was numb enough to pretend it didn’t hurt while he typed out his resignation. Then he got drunker and in the morning the only way he could tell that he actually pushed send on the thing, was that Jim had sent a mail back accepting it. Jim had also deleted the rambling incoherency, spell-checked it, and forwarded the resignation on to Starfleet command, his acceptance of said resignation neatly appended.

So Len couldn’t take it back even if he wanted to. Not that he wanted to. Or rather he wanted desperately, he just couldn’t. Jo came first. Knowing that Jim felt just the same somehow made the whole thing even harder to bear.

Gritting his teeth, he managed to accept all the congratulations without actually biting anyone’s head off.

Four days later when Jim tracked him down to his quarters, he was surprised. Jim had been so careful in avoiding him, Len was sure he wouldn’t see Jim again until they were disembarking, and maybe not even then.

“Hey,” said Jim, shifting uncomfortably just outside the room.

“Hey, uh, come on in,” he stepped back to let Jim walk in.

Looking even more uncomfortable Jim stepped inside. Len propped himself up against his desk and waited. Jim was possible even worse at emotional moments than Len was himself, and trying to hurry him got you nowhere.

“Bones I,” Jim broke off and glanced briefly at the floor. Len folded his arms tightly to stop himself going to Jim. Jim’s face was court martial blank but his voice was flayed open.

“Bones I’m sorry, I can’t go and live in Georgia with you. I just can’t.” Jim’s voice trembled with agony on the last word and Len hated to think of Jim struggling with this all alone.

“It’s okay Jim. I know.” Len wasn’t sure how he was going to cope with squashing himself back into small town Georgia life; asking Jim to do the same would be like asking an angel to hack off his wings.

“Riverside was… Well obviously it couldn’t have been that bad, but – it nearly killed me Bones.”

Len closed his eyes as he imagined Jim after a year or two in Georgia kicking out at everything like an animal stuck in a trap. 

“I know Jim,” he said unsteadily. “That’s why I never asked.”

“But I, you, you’re…” Jim gave up on words and just looked at him, his eyes painfully blue.

“Yeah, yeah me too, Jim.”

“So I was thinking. Radikan III is looking for settlers. And I thought maybe. Maybe.” He shoved the heap of papers out towards Len,

“I, uh, asked around. Seems they wouldn’t mind a former Starfleet Captain as Governor. And Starfleet, they’re looking at expanding in the area. They like the idea of a more Starfleet orientated base of operations. Which would mean more support for the colony, so the colony was even happier with the idea. And they practically drooled at the thought of a doctor with your skills. Pike thinks it will work. So I, I,” Jim’s voice abruptly cracked,

“Bones say something, please.”

“You want me and Jo to come and live with you on some planet in the middle of nowhere.”

“I know it wouldn’t be Georgia, but it would be settled, and it’s right up against the Klingon side of space, so thanks to Old Spock we know it will be safe. The permanent peace treaty’s only about ten years off. There’s a school and everything. I mean it’s just a little colony-school, but Jo’s only seven. By the time she’s ready for high school there should be a lot more kids around.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“I,” Jim blushed, and Len knew exactly what Jim had spent the last four days doing.

“Did you pick out a house too?”

“Sure. I have a picture. Want to see.” Jim shuffled the paperwork, some of the heap fluttered to the floor and he dropped to his knees to scrabble it up.

Len laughed.

Jim’s head jerked up, “What?”

“That was supposed to be a rhetorical question.”

“Oh, uh, well nothing’s settled. You don’t have to live there. Or on Radikan III. I mean, there are others we could look into. I mean, if you want.”

Len laughed again, “You think I don’t know that you checked them all out and this one is the best choice for us.”

“Don’t you want a chance to give your opinion?” Jim was still on his knees, looking up at him uncertainly. Len pushed away from his desk and crouched down beside him.

“Jim, I followed you out into the black. You think I’m going to stop now.”

“But this is for Jo.”

“I trust you with Jo too, darling.”

“Oh.” Jim’s cheeks flushed and his eyes lit up. “Is that a yes?”

“Yes, it’s a yes.”

And then Jim was kissing him, wet and messy. Len kissed him back, sliding his hands under Jim’s top to palm the smooth skin and strong muscle.

“You’ll see,” Jim promised. “We’re going to be so happy Bones.”

(And they were - except for the part where it turned out Old Spock was completely wrong about the Human-Klingon peace treaty and Bones swore he went grey when Jo, Ben and Maec joined the Human Resistance while they were still teenagers, proving once and for all they were Jim’s children regardless of what their genetics said.)


End file.
